may2023 - 8

Business Buzz
SAE AGE-3 Committee
Holds Spring Meeting
The SAE Aircraft Ground Support Equipment
Committee (SAE AGE-3) held its
annual in-person meeting in Orlando,
Florida during the week of March 27. The
event, hosted by JBT, was held in conjunction
with the IATA Ground Operation
Automation and Digitalization (GAD)
Committee gathering.
The SAE AGE-3 committee provides
standardization and recommended practices
within the GSE industry. Committee
members include airlines, aircraft manufacturers,
ground handlers, airports,
equipment manufacturers and suppliers.
Technical presentations were
made covering topics such as autonomous
vehicles.
Several working groups provided
updates on topics including aircraft
recovery equipment, 400 VDC electric
propulsion systems in ground support
equipment, and PCA enhancements.
The committee initiated a revision to a
recommended practice to standardize
PEOPLE
Swissport Announces
Changes to Executive Team
Swissport made two key changes to
its executive team. Karen Cox, formerly
global director of operations
and safety and co-head of UK and
Ireland, has assumed the role of CEO
for the group's UK and Ireland region.
Andres Diez, director of global
commercial, becomes new chief
commercial officer for the Americas,
taking on the task of driving topline
business growth and improving
profitability across the United
States, Canada, Latin America and
the Caribbean.
" Karen and Andres have both
made significant contributions to
Swissport since joining the company
in 2021. As we put all our energy
into taking the company to the next
8 || Ground Support Worldwide || May 2023
level of global service excellence,
we also want to further commercialize
our offering across countries
and regions, especially for airlines
operating worldwide, " said Warwick
Brady, president and CEO of Swissport
International AG.
Cox reports to Brady. She is stepping
down as director of global
operations and safety. This post will
be taken over ad interim by Richard
Male, global VP for ground handling.
Diez reports to Frank Mena, CEO of
Swissport's U.S. and Canada region,
and to Rene Pascua, CEO of Latin
America and the Caribbean. Until
a successor has been appointed, he
will also continue to serve Swissport
as director of global commercial.
Cox
Diez
dnata's Air Dispatch Celebrates
7 Millionth Loadsheet
Air Dispatch, part of dnata and a leading
supplier of centralized load control
(CLC) services, recently celebrated the
GSE chargers at the airport for common
charging infrastructure throughout
the industry.
Elections were held and Kevin Cecil
was elected chairman and Dan Boucher
was elected vice chairman.
The fall 2023 meeting will be virtual
on Oct. 5.
production of its 7 millionth loadsheet.
The milestone document was issued
from the Prague facility, ensuring safe
and efficient operations of a Titan Airways'
Airbus A330-300 P2F cargo flight,
which the airline operates on behalf of
global forwarder GEODIS.
Air Dispatch has been offering CLC
services to legacy and new generation
carriers since 2007, calculating the weight
and balance conditions for aircraft prior
to flight, securing greater productivity
and profitability for its airline customers.
" With the increased adoption of the
IATA Ground Operations Manual (IGOM),
more and more cargo airlines are looking
to CLC services as a way of complying
with the newly required 'four-eyes' principle
for the production of weight and
balance documentation. Using a CLC for
the production of the loadsheet allows
for early communications with the cargo
warehouse, thus maximizing the payload
and freeing up the loadmasters'
time during the turnaround, " says Nick
Yeadon, CEO of Air Dispatch.
may2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of may2023
